History

In the early 19th century, Ljubljana was a small Hapsburg town of around 20,000 people. For a few months in 1821, however, heads of state from around Europe briefly made Ljubljana the center of international politics and diplomacy. Between January and May of that year, Ljubljana was the venue for the second congress of the Holy Alliance, which united most ...

In a nation known for its mountains and valleys, Prekmurje stands apart. Consisting mostly of flatland as well as gentle hills to the north, the “land across the Mura” was once a part of Hungary and still feels unlike any other part of Slovenia. The region’s Hungarian past lives on in the form of a vibrant Hungarian community. In the ...

  Slovenian Museum and Archives in Cleveland recently hosted many exhibits about Slovenian history, culture and other related themes. Most recently, the museum presented the exhibit about Cockta, which was kindly provided and translated by the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. Presenter, Luka Zibelnik, went through the history of the most well-known Slovenian soda drink and counterpart to Coca-Cola. Visitors were able ...

Ljubljana has long served as the cultural capital of the Slovenian people, but the city has also had an important industrial sector. For generations, it was the home to a tobacco processing plant that provided employment for thousands of townspeople and established an enviable reputation. The Ljubljana Tobacco Factory was set up 1871. From makeshift facilities in a former sugar ...

Nursing has a proud tradition in Slovenia, and these days, Slovenian nurses are in high demand in several European countries. But no matter where their profession takes them, they follow in the footsteps of Angela Boškin, Slovenia’s first professional nurse – a little-known woman with an impressive legacy. Boškin was born into a poor family in the Slovenian village of ...

The Reichenburg Castle above the town of Brestanica in eastern Slovenia draws visitors who come to admire its historic, Romanesque architecture and to revel in the view toward the confluence of the Sava and the Brestanica rivers. For many years, however, the castle was the site of great turmoil and even violence – a trend that continued even into the ...

A prehistoric settlement situated at an altitude of 750 metres has been discovered in the east of the country in what archaeologists say is a unique site in Europe.  The site, containing the remains of ceramics from the Early Iron Age, has been stumbled upon by a hiker on a steep slope of Donačka Gora, a 884-metre peak above Rogatec ...

Kranj, the historical capital of Slovenia’s Gorenjska region, is known for its medieval architecture and its location below the Alps, but its newest tourist attraction lies far beneath the town’s streets. Kranj’s mysterious network of tunnels has its origins in the tense days before the outbreak of World War II. That’s when local authorities decided to build a network of ...

There was nothing quite like it in Medieval Europe. When a new Duke was about to be installed in the Duchy of Carantania of the 7th and 8th centuries, he did not assume power solely by divine right, as was common elsewhere in Europe. Instead, the prospective duke, symbolically wearing peasants’ clothing, faced a member of the peasantry who had ...

The railroad between Jesenice and Nova Gorica – known as the Bohinj Railway – takes travelers through Alpine valleys, past glacial lakes and deep forests, and through a long tunnel beneath the snow-capped peaks of the Julian Alps. Built between 1900 and 1904, it was a major transportation undertaking designed to connect Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, along ...